The invention relates to method for controlling a belt hand-over device and to a belt hand-over device for a motor vehicle.
Belt hand-over devices for motor vehicle serve to take up a seat belt held out well behind a vehicle seat, especially in convertibles or coupes, and to move it into a presentation position ergonomically favorable for the vehicle occupant, where the occupant of the vehicle can easily grasp and apply the belt. The belt hand-over device, which in a rest position is drawn back into a recess in the interior trim of the motor vehicle, comprises a belt catcher, which is arranged at the end of a feed device and which for take-up and for delivery of the seat belt by means of the feed device is moved out of the rest position in the interior trim of the motor vehicle, takes up the seat belt and moves it into the presentation position.
The belt catcher comprises a belt finger which takes up the seat belt and which, with the belt hand-over device in the rest position, before delivery of the seat belt into the presentation position commences, rests against the feed device, and a swivel device, which during the feed movement of the belt hand-over device swivels the belt finger into an extended position running transversely to the moving path, in which position the belt finger grips the seat belt with a curved catching face and through a feed movement of the feed device and moves it into the presentation position. Once the vehicle occupant has grasped and applied the seat belt or a predetermined presentation time has elapsed, the belt catcher is returned from the presentation position to the rest position by a return movement of the feed device and the belt finger moves back from the extended position aligned transversely to the moving path into a retracted position running parallel to the moving path, before the belt catcher is run into the recess in the interior trim of the motor vehicle.
The extension and retraction of the belt finger are initiated by a trigger element, which is operatively connected to the feed device. In order that the force, exerted on the belt finger of the belt catcher by the seat belt being reeled off from a retractor mechanism, will not cause the belt finger to swivel back out of the extended position into the retracted position during the delivery movement of the belt hand-over device, the belt catcher has a locking device, which locks the belt finger, extended transversely to the moving path, in the extended position at least until the belt hand-over device is fed into the presentation position.
For the belt hand-over device to function correctly, it is essential that the belt finger should take up the seat belt securely during the delivery movement into the presentation position and should not draw the seat belt into the recess in the interior trim whilst the belt hand-over device is being returned to the rest position, so that the belt hand-over device and the seat belt jam, or so that the seat belt when next operated cannot be taken up by the belt finger and brought into the presentation position. The risk of unwanted threading of the seat belt on the return movement occurs, for example, if the seat belt slips during the delivery movement, in the presentation position or during the return, or is brought into its reeled position by the vehicle occupant before the belt hand-over mechanism returns into the interior trim when the presentation time has elapsed.
In order, in particular, to prevent any unwanted threading of the belt hand-over device into the seat belt, so-called belt deflectors in the form of bands or cords are known, which are arranged separately from the belt hand-over device and which prevent the seat belt being accidentally drawn into the interior trim of the motor vehicle. These belt deflectors incur additional manufacturing and assembly costs, however, and are detrimental in terms of the overall visual impression and design of the vehicle interior.